The use of electronic mail or e-mail has increased over the past number of years, in particular due to the use of the Internet and applications such as Microsoft Outlook.
The increase in the e-mails a user receives has necessitated easier means to classify and file e-mails. Many e-mail users feel overwhelmed by the volume of e-mails that arrive in their inboxes, specifically when they do not have enough time to immediately read and act on received e-mails. As the e-mail inbox fills, an undifferentiated mass of e-mails results. Further, certain e-mails of higher importance may become lost in this undifferentiated mass of e-mails.
In order to process and archived e-mails, users of e-mail programs typically create folders (or files) into which they place e-mails. E-mail programs typically provide users with a relatively large degree of flexibility regarding the nature of such folders, and also allow users to create a hierarchy of folders. For example, a user may create folders within which to place the e-mails pertaining to a specific project (e.g., project A) or pertaining to a certain aspect of a work environment (e.g., recruiting). Further, users typically also create folders to prioritize actions with respect to e-mails (e.g., high, medium and low priority response folders).
The categorization and placing of e-mails in appropriate folders becomes a challenge, in and of itself, once a user has created a large number of folders. The problem is exacerbated when the folder structure involves into a hierarchical data structure, with certain folders not being readily visible to a user. Additionally, certain high level employees within a company may employee human assistants that are responsible for the filing of e-mails in appropriate folders within the high level employee's e-mail program. Such an assistant may be faced with the challenge of not being familiar with a folder hierarchy that has been developed by the high level employee.
Certain automated systems to attend to the filing of e-mails in appropriate folders have been suggested in the prior art. Many of these systems, however, tend to be overly simplistic or overly complicated.